


Bloodwards and Secrets

by mikkeli



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Infidelity, Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-27
Updated: 2017-02-27
Packaged: 2018-09-27 08:00:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9984254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikkeli/pseuds/mikkeli
Summary: Bill discovers a secret; canon compliant (ish), M content, implied lemons. One shot.





	

=====|=====  
PART I

Easter 2018 - The Burrow

Woosh! The floo in the Burrow came to life, as James and Sirius stepped out of the fireplace. 

“Mum!” the two boys said simultaneously, as their mother, Ginny Potter embraced them in a big hug.

“My boys! I think you’ve grown an inch since Christmas! Now where are your cousins?”

Sirius and Albus looked at each other. Sirius spoke up first, “Not sure mum. Victoire went with Teddy to the Tonks’, she should be here soon. Rose tried to floo over first, but she could get floo at the Three Broomsticks to connect for her.”

“I think she wanted an excuse to talk to Scorpius,” added Albus, the middle Potter child, with a smirk. 

Ginny’s smile momentarily faltered, before she smoothed her expression. “Okay, I’ll just floo call.”

Taking a pinch of floo powder, she called “Three Broomsticks!”, sticking her head into the green flames. On the other side she spied her niece. “Darling, I’ll be over with Uncle Bill and side-along you right over. Order a butterbeer, and I’ll pay. Rosmerta knows I’m good for it. It’ll be just a few minutes!”

Ginny pulled her head back from the green flames and addressed her two sons. “Go find Lily, she’s been dying to see you. She’s in the garden, with Hugo and the others. If your father or uncle Ron gets here, tell him I’ve borrowed Bill to take go Hogsmeade to pick up Rose.”

“Okay mum!” they said, rushing off to the garden, and likely the broom shed.

Ginny went in search of her oldest brother. He had been tinkering with the Burrow’s wards that day. She had a sinking feeling in her stomach, something she hoped Bill could resolve for her quickly.

=====|=====

Bill and Ginny met their niece in the Three Broomsticks ten minutes later. Bill held Rose’s hand to side along, and the trio apparated just outside the Burrow’s wards. 

“Something must be wrong with the floo. Amending those wards are always tricky, since the Ministry is involved. But the perimeter wards should be much easier,” said Bill, the veteran cursebreaker and wardsmith.

Ginny let Bill lead the way down the dirt path, with Rose in the middle. Bill smiled, just as he stepped over the discretely buried stones that demarcated the boundary. Rose shrugged, and stepped over the threshold.

And was immediately thrown back into her aunt, the two of them ending up in a pile. “Okay, dear?” said Ginny, helping her niece up and dusting them both off with a quick cleaning spell. 

Bill frowned, and waived his wand over the stone in an intricate pattern. He stood up, and said “alright, how about Aunty Ginny step through, then Rose, mmmkay?”

Ginny stepped carefully over the invisible barrier, and then gestured for her niece to come next. As soon as Rose stepped over the ward, she was thrown back. 

“Bill, what’s wrong?” Ginny asked, although in her heart she already knew.

“I don’t understand. It is just a simple blood ward. I’ve already added Audrey, Hermione, and Angelina. It should work.”

“Can,” Ginny started, flashing a quick look back at her niece. “Can we take a quick blood sample from Rose and Hugo? I know it might take hours otherwise.”

Bill took an appraising look at Ginny. She refused to meet his gaze. Finally, he said “okay. Yeah. That’s probably the simplest. Rose, just a quick drop and I can add it to the ward stone. Just a temporary fix. Hugo is already inside, I’ll fetch him in a bit.” He crossed the boundary and produced a tiny silver pen knife from his belt, standard issue for Gringott’s ward breakers. 

After just a couple drops of blood from the wincing children, he anointed the ward stone, performed a quick incantation, and welcomed Rose to the Burrow. 

=====|=====

That evening, after a hearty Weasley family supper, Bill cornered Hermione and Ginny cleaning up in the kitchen. 

“Hello, ladies,” Bill said. 

Ginny grimaced, then quickly put on a phony smile. “Hello.”

“Hi Bill. Rose said something about trouble with the floo?” asked Hermione, attempting to steer the conversation. 

“Yes. I’m still trying to figure it out. It seemed to work for Albus and James. Victoire as well.” 

Hermione stopped drying dishes, the well worn dish town placed carefully on the counter. “Interesting.” She paused, biting her lip with her eyes closed. “Have the wards… changed?” Her voice rose as asked the question, barely squeaking out the final word. 

Ginny continued slowly scraping off the plates and soaking them in the sink mindlessly, as if an automaton. 

“Ron mentioned some increased threats. Auror intelligence, more blood purist nonsense, that kind of thing. It had been a few years since I tuned the wards. Given the lot of us, I added a blood ward, just for the weekend. I’ll take it off when I go home.”

The color went out of Hermione’s face. Then suddenly she turned on her heel, “Rose and Hugo… half-bloods, you know? Who knows what muggle blood can mean. It is not studied much, I could pull some books. The Department of Mysteries director owes me a favor. Perhaps Granger’s are a lost squib line and it confuses it, or perhaps a new mutation, a new magical gene. It could be anything, really. I’m glad you fixed it.” Her words came out without a pause between them. 

Bill endured her bout of nervous logorrhea with a flat expression. “Ginny, what do you think?”

“The hiccup is fixed. I don’t think it is any of our business now. Let it lie, Bill.” she said, flatly. 

This response seemed to catch both Bill and Hermione off guard. “I’ll need new samples, for the floo wards.”

“Can’t you just take mine?” Hermione asked. “That should work, right? You need to do Harry, he just got back from Belgium the other day. I don’t think he’s been by the Burrow yet.”

“He should be here shortly, I just received his patronus message,” added Ginny.

Bill rapped his fingers on the kitchen island. “Yeah, I suppose you are right.” The eldest Weasley son stopped leaning against the counter, and stood on his feet. He clasped his hands behind his back. He looked as if he was about to say something, but then closed his mouth and walked out.

Hermione looked over at Ginny. The bushy haired woman bit her lip, a bit nervously. Ginny finished cleaning the last plate, leaving a stack of wet dishes for her sister in law to dry off. 

Ginny sighed. Then, staring ahead but whispering to her sister in law behind her she said, “I’ll talk to Fleur.” 

=====|=====

The next day, James, Albus, Lily, Rose and Hugo visited the recently updated Potter Manor to check out the new quidditch field. Teddy, Victoire, and Dominque also visited, which allowed for a lively four on four pick up game. The Potters and Teddy triumphed, but Hugo was a bright talent as a chaser or seeker for being only 11. 

They happy children took the floo back the the Burrow, but once again Rose and Hugo were unable to go through.

James went and found Bill and Ron, so that the could floo to Potter Manor and then side-along back.

It was nearly time for lunch, and Fleur was helping Molly set the outside table for a garden lunch. 

Hermione greeted her husband with a kiss on the cheek, and a hug for her children. Bill waited for them to depart. 

“I should have taken a sample yesterday, I’m sorry I forgot.” he said. 

“No worries, Bill. Can you do it now?”

“Right, what’s this about?” asked Ron, looking up from the biscuits he had purloined from the cooling wrack. “Why didn’t the floo work?”

“Bill has been modifying the wards. They need to be reset.” Hermione answered with a forced casualness. Bill stayed silent. 

Harry walked through the back door, carrying a fruit and vegetable plate charmed to avoid soot. He had just apparated from the grocer.

Ron replied, “Yeah, he took a sample from me last week when I visited mum while you were visiting Hogwarts. Bill said that should cover Rose and Hugo.”

Bill cleared his throat. “New wards, I guess they need to tailored. Every premises is different. Hermione has a theory about muggle born heritage.”

Ron nodded. “Oh. Well, she’s the smartest witch of her age. You should probably see about doing the same with Audrey for Molly and Lucy.” 

Bill looked back at the floo, thoughtfully. “Mmm hmm.”

=====|=====  
PART II

Three days later, Bill and Fleur had invited Hermione and Ginny to Shell Cottage. Ron had technically been on the clock when they had taken the kids to take the sparsely populated Hogwarts Express back to the castle. Aurors always provided additional security, and Ron worked part time for the ministry. The rest of time he was an assistant coach for the Chudley Cannons. Harry had helped get Lily up and ready, and then picked up Hugo before dropping them off with the Weasley matriarch. He had business at the Wizengamot to attend to. That left Ginny and Hermione free for a late lunch. 

Fleur had cooked up some hearty garbure and home baked bread, a nice warm meal for the still chilly spring weather. Bill apparated on the beach, freshly returning from delivering his youngest, Dominque, to the Burrow to spend time with her cousins Lily and Hugo.

“Ladies,” Bill said, smiling at the three witches enjoying slim slices of charlotte cake and strawberries. 

“Thank you for inviting me, Bill. I don’t spend as much time with your lovely wife as I should,” replied Hermione.

“Yes, we are family, are we not?” replied Bill. He strummed his fingers across the table, which overlooked the beach. “I think you two know why I invited you both here.”

Hermione looked down at her hands, neatly folder in her lap. Ginny narrowed her eyes at her hitherto favorite brother. 

Bill continued, “It was something Ron said, of all people.” Hermione and Ginny both snorted. Bill glared as his sister and sister in law, but kept going. “Molly and Lucy were able to visit,” Bill said, referring to Percy and Audrey two young children. “Even before I was able to add Audrey to the wards.”

Hermione tentatively offered, “Maybe Percy had already come by. You know how the Aurors keep Ronald busy.”

“I think I know how blood wards work, Hermione.” said Bill, curtly. 

“I thought I said let it lie, William,” said his redheaded sister, with unrestrained acerbic tone. 

Bill looked askance at his baby sister. “So you know?”

Fleur watched the siblings warily, ready to intervene. Hermione continued to look down, not daring to make eye contact.

Ginny bit her cheek, and looked off at the surf, then spoke. “Harry is nothing if not honest. He wouldn’t lie to me.”

“I can’t believe it. How long has this been going on?” demanded Bill, getting red in the face. Fleur reached and touched his arm, trying to mediate the situation, and curb his anger. 

Ginny tapped her foot a few times and then sighed. “Twenty years, give or take. Since the holidays after your wedding, in fact. When our lovely brother decided to grace yourself with his presence, leaving the two of them alone in the Forest.”

“I’ve forgave him a long time ago,” Hermione interjected, softly. 

“I didn’t,” responded Ginny, archly. 

“So you fucked Harry, while Ginny was pining away for him at Hogwarts?” asked Bill.

“We were on a break, you know that,” said Ginny, defending her sister in law. 

“Okay, fine. Proof of life or whatever. Things were bad. Ron hadn’t even had the guts to ask Hermione out yet, despite years of dancing around. That’s on him. But when did it pick back up again?”

Hermione had at least the dignity to blush. “It didn’t really… ever stop. I mean, we tried to break it off. Ronald kissed me, and Harry got back with Ginny. Just like the book was supposed to read. But things never really ended.”

Bill gripped his soup spoon tightly, his knuckles turning white. He turned to his sister, “And you are okay with it?”

Ginny sighed. “Well, I try not to think of it, much. He doesn’t rub it in my face. They are… discrete.” 

“Why do you put up with it?”

“I’m not unhappy, Bill. I’ve got everything I ever wanted. I’m Lady Potter, just as I always dreamed of. We have three lovely children, who we both love completely. He’s a wonderful father. He supported me to pursue my quidditch career, and now the reporting. And frankly, I’m well satisfied in the bedroom. He’s everything a woman could want in a husband.”

“Except for fucking your sister in law. Merlin,” he sniffed, his senses enhanced so close to the full moon, “you both have his scent on you. You both smell like two sickle whores! It’s only 1pm, how could he have fucked you both today? Hermione, I can smell your leaking cunt from here!”

Fleur smacked her husband on the back of his head. “Bill!” She delicately sniffed the air, too. She covered her smile demurely with her well manicured hand, her veela senses confirming that both witches were indeed well fucked that day. 

“What do you want me to say Bill? Yes I know he fucks her. That he loves her. You think I can’t tell his cock sometimes smells like pussy? Her pussy. And you know what, I’m at peace with it. I don’t love it, Merlin knows I don’t share well. But you know what? I’m the one who sits beside him at ministry dinners. I’m the one whose twat he diddles while suffering through another awful ministry speech. I am the witch who got the ring. I’m the wife.” With that Ginny shot a smug little look at the taller witch sitting beside her. 

Bill shook his head. He looked at Hermione. “And what about you? You’re married to another man! The wards don’t lie, you’ve cuckolded my brother!”

Hermione chuffed out a breath, gathering her nerve and summoning her indignation. “Technically, we are not actually married.”

Fleur and Ginny gasped at that, Bill just scowled.

Hermione continued. “Muggle ceremony, remember? No magical vows. Muggle marriages require a marriage license, which we never filled out, nor filed. I never officially changed my name; and around the ministry I always refer to Ron and ‘my Ron’ and never ‘my husband.’ So legally speaking, no marriage. I’ve never held him out publicly as husband, even if I let others assume. You can check the ministry records if you’d like.”

“So you’ve decided to delude Ron into thinking he is married?” His voice rising, “To delude him into thinking Hugo and Rose are his children!?”

Hermione glared across the table. “Ron is their father, at least in most ways.”

“What do you mean, ‘in most ways,’ what are you getting at?” Bill demanded.

“They love his as their father, he loves them as his children. Love is what matters, right? Anyway, muggles record births with certain forms. I made sure their parentage is recorded accurately.”

“You mean their muggle birth certificates say Harry is the father? But they are named Weasley!”

“You can name your children whatever you wish. They are Granger-Weasley. Customs are not the same as law, and names can be changed. Pragmatically speaking, they would have more to benefit from Harry’s acknowledgement of paternity. There are plenty of Weasleys. There are far fewer official Potters, no thanks to Riddle.”

Turning to his sister, “So you know about this, about acknowledging the children?”

Ginny nodded, “Well I didn’t know about the marriage, I guess that’s her secret. But otherwise, of course. Harry doesn’t hide things from me. As head of the House, he can acknowledge his, well, bastards.” Ginny smirked a tiny bit at the accurate usage of the inflammatory term. “Setting up a trust to ensure the education and financial security for Lily and Hugo does not meaningfully affect the net worth of House Potter. He would have taken care of them, anyway. He’s set aside money for Victoire and Dominque, and all the other nieces and nephews, just more for the two of them. Setting aside the galleons just for a dowry for Rose was my idea, in fact. Both James and Albus are ahead of Rose and Hugo in terms of proper heirship, for the title. The only that directly effects my own in that Lily is fifth in line, rather than third. That’s fairly trivial. If he doesn’t designate Teddy as Lord Black when he turns of age, a Black descendant through his grandmother, as he currently plans, he could offer title to Hermione’s line for all I care.”

“Un-fucking-believable.” Bill muttered. “But what about Ron? Shouldn’t he know?”

Ginny answered, jabbing her spoon in the air demonstratively. “Be honest with yourself. Do you think Ron would be happier to know the truth, or is he happier as he is now?”

“Without Harry’s help, do you really think we could afford our house with just Ron’s part-time auror job and unpaid coaching position? My ministry job doesn’t pay that well. The Devon bungalow, the annual vacations, the Cannon’s season tickets. Harry pays for that.” Hermione added. 

Bill snorted. “So he helps with money, and he gets to fuck you. Is that it? That’s the very definition of prostitution.”

“Fuck you, Bill!” rejoined Hermione through clenched teeth, her exceedingly rare profanity stunning the other three at the table. “Don’t make me choose, you wouldn’t like my choice. I rather doubt Ron would like that choice, either. Ron is a good man, and I admit I’m unfair to him. He loves me, and I do love him, in a fashion. But my heart belongs to Harry, and it belonged to him long before Ron asked me out.”

“Your heart, and your snatch.” sneered Bill.

“Bill!” admonished his wife.

“Yeah, my snatch, my cunt. Ron is welcome to fuck me, when he gets his lazy ass off the couch. He’s a selfish lover. Twenty years, Bill. And not once has your brother made me come. Not once! The funny thing is, he hasn’t come inside me in ten years. If he wants off, thirty seconds of sucking and he’s limp and snoring. Not that I’m complaining. Three times a week Harry and I get together. My office is just one floor away from his Wizengamot office. Hell, he fucked me in the bathroom of the Burrow this past Christmas. A nice quick zipless fuck. Ginny is right, she is the lucky one. She got the ring, the one Lily wore. But when I’m cumming on his big cock, I don’t care. His given me two beautiful babies, after years of asking for him to knock me up; to forget the charm and just empty his fertile balls into my womb. Yes, today he fucked me after I returned from King’s Cross. Right on my quote-marital bed-unquote. And I begged him to finish inside. Begged him.”

Ginny smirked, “he fucked me in the shower, first. I had to get most of his cum, five hours later and I’m still leaking. Thank Merlin for his wandless silencing charm, and the miracle of muggle panty liners.”

Bill just shook his head at pseudo-sister in law’s extended profane outburst, and his baby’s sister less than subtle jealousy fuelled taunts. “How does Ron not know?”

“He’s a bit thick. I admit I’ve been lucky that Rose and Hugo inherited Lily’s auburn hair. It’s not exactly Weasley red, but it is close enough. I wish they had Harry’s eyes, like Albus has, but I suppose that would have been so obvious even Ron would have figured it out. No more children for me, not even if Harry asks,” replied Hermione. 

The conversation lulled. Ginny broke the silence. “So what do you want to do, Bill?”

“What do you mean?” Bill said confused. The question died on the salty ocean breeze, none of the three witches taking up a response. Finally he said, “ Shit, I don’t know. You’re right, Ron is probably happier being oblivious. But I can’t say I like the status quo.”

“Bien sur. That’s what you said before, too.” said Fleur.

Bill’s head snapped to his wife, sitting close to his side, keeping his Weasley temper in check only with conscious effort. “What do you mean?” asked Bill, confused. 

“This is the fifth time we’ve had this talk, Bill. Every few years you figure it out. Maybe its your knowledge of blood magic, or maybe it is just because you’re the smartest Weasley.”

“So every time in the past…” Bill began.

“Memory charm and obliviation. Voluntarily, of course.”

Bill swallowed. “Voluntarily?” 

Fleur smiled. “Oui, the choice is yours. The truth, or ignorance. Until you figure it out again, and Hermione no longer wants it to be a secret.” The statement implied a question, and the veela-blooded witch looked to Hermione with a questioning glance. 

“When Hugo is seventeen, maybe. I don’t know. Now it is not even about protecting the children anymore, really. It is about protecting your brother,” Hermione said. 

Bill stood up and turned to watch the surf pounding the rocky shore. He took a deep breath.

“Who will do it?” he asked, quietly.

Ginny nodded to the other two witches. “Fleur, she knows your mind the best.”

Bill nodded. “Victoire, Dominque…?” he asked, quietly. 

“All yours, my love. Veela blood means once I choose a mate, you are all I will ever desire.”

Bill smiled as his lovely wife, then he sighed deeply. “Do it.”


End file.
